National Teams

The United States Soccer Federation (USSF) has begun to consider repealing its ban on players kneeling during the national anthem. The board of directors plans to meet on Tuesday, June 9 to discuss the policy.

This comes in the wake of outrage and resulting protests over the murder of George Floyd while in police custody. Protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and against police brutality have sprung up across the nation and are now drawing global attention.

MILAN — Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini admires Uruguay forward Luis Suarez for biting him during a heated match at the 2014 World Cup, he said in his autobiography.

Suarez, who escaped punishment during the game, was later banned for four months plus nine internationals — but Chiellini said he bore no grudge towards him.

"Malice is part of football, I wouldn't call it illegitimate. To get past a rival you have to be smart," the Juventus captain said in the book "Io, Giorgio".

"I admire his cunning," he added. "If he lost it, he'd become an ordinary forward."

Spain coach Luis Enrique is no fan of playing matches without spectators as leagues begin to return in empty stadiums after being disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Playing matches without supporters is sadder than dancing with your sister," Luis Enrique said in an interview for Spanish basketball show Colgados del Aro.

Last weekend the Bundesliga became the first major European league to resume action and players were unable to celebrate goals together to reduce the risk of infection while stadiums normally packed with boisterous supporters were left bare.

On this day 10 years ago — May 21, 2010 to be exact — Sam Kerr made her mark for the Matildas. 

Australia was playing in the 2010 AFC Women’s Asian Cup final against North Korea where she scored her first international goal at the age of 16. 

MANCHESTER, England — The head of Qatar's 2022 World Cup organising committee has vowed to ensure the tournament remains affordable for fans despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy.

The gulf state will host the 32-nation tournament in November and December 2022 and while Hassan Al Thawadi, head of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, is hopeful the public health situation will be vastly improved he acknowledges the ripple-effects for the economy will be a challenge.

BERN — The hosts for the 2023 Women's World Cup will be chosen at an online meeting of the FIFA Council on June 25, the global soccer body said on Friday.

FIFA will choose between Brazil, Colombia, Japan and a joint bid from Australia and New Zealand in what it said was the "most competitive bidding process" in the event's 29-year history. None of the bidding nations have staged the event before.

The hosts were originally due to be chosen at a FIFA Council meeting in Addis Ababa in June but that was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

There’s not a lot of information to go off apart from this Netflix tweet that features Julie Foudy, Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers, Joy Fawcett, Kristine Lilly, Briana Scurry, Carla Overbeck and Brandi Chastain, but a film that covers the USWNT’s journey to the 1999 Women’s World Cup is coming to Netflix.

Jill Ellis, who led the United States to back-to-back Women's World Cup titles, would make the ideal replacement for England head coach Phil Neville when he leaves the job next year, former striker Eniola Aluko has said. 

England women's head coach Neville will exit the role at the end of his contract in July 2021 and Aluko told The Football Show that Ellis had the ability to bring silverware to the team. 

The U.S. women's soccer team has filed to appeal a district court decision handed down last week that dismissed its claims for equal pay, a spokesperson for the team said on Friday.

The team suffered an unexpected blow to their high-profile case against their federation when the court threw out the players' claims that they were under paid in comparison with the men's national team.

SYDNEY — Matildas striker Sam Kerr says the COVID-19 crisis has wreaked havoc in the medium-term career planning for Australia's top women footballers, leaving them with a major tournament to play every year until 2024.

Kerr and her team mates would have been looking forward to a long break in the middle of next year but that slot will now be occupied by the Tokyo Olympics, postponed by a year because of the pandemic.

"This has put a real spanner in the works," Kerr told Fox Sports TV from lockdown in London, where she plays for Chelsea.